Chapter 21 - Impressions Of A Small Village

The first time I came to visit I was surprised to be familiar with this village. There was a long bridge, and a whole mountain of plum tree plantation covered with white plum flowers. When my bus entered the village I became emotional and sentimental. Under the bridge I saw an outcropping of blue granite, and next to the granite a large white rock. I thought, "I not only remember this place, I have sunbathed on this rock and swum under this bridge. Now I remember, right past this bridge is a land-god shrine."

I asked anxiously, "Is there a shrine just up on the right side of the road here?"

"Oh yes!" Miss Fan answered without thinking.

She looked at me curiously. "I thought you said you'd never been here before. "

The bus turned to the right, and there was the shrine. The bricks were old and darkened from weathering.

"If I am right," I said to Miss Fan, "we still have to pass a small bridge to get to the village and the bridge's name is Justice. I hope my memory is correct."

Miss Fan looked at me with wide eyes and said, "Yes. There is a small bridge there, but I never paid attention to the name of it."

There was a bus stop just before the bridge and we saw its name clearly: its name: Justice Bridge.

"You must have been here before," Miss Fan said.

"No, I've never been here in this lifetime."

"Then how do you know the name of this bridge?"

"I don't know, but under this bridge, a long time ago, the people were raising ducks. There used to be lots of ducks."

Past the bridge, we saw a big flock of ducks and a small house with a thatched roof. A man stood by the river watching the ducks. It all looked more and more familiar.

Miss Fan's father operated grocery stores here. He'd heard of my reputation as a Feng-shui master, and he had asked his daughter to bring me to the village.

"You are a strange person," Miss Fan said.

"Not at all. Today my head is very clear," I replied.

When we got out of the bus my heart was floating. It seemed there hadn't been much change in this village.

Miss Fan took me to see her father. In addition to two grocery stores, the family owned orchards of oranges and plums, and a bamboo forest.

Her father was the local representative for the village.

"I suppose you have never been to this small and remote village," her father said to me.

How could I answer his question? Actually, I had never been here in my thirty-three years of life, yet I could not say that I'd never been here. I muddled through. It was difficult to describe my feelings. I felt as if I was returning from far away to my hometown. I felt nervous, anxious and somewhat afraid to see people I once knew well.

"Mister Fan, at the end of this street there was a family who lived in the red brick house. The name was Shih. Do you know them?"

"Oh. That is the house of Grandmother Shih. Now in her family there is only her servant. The Shih family used to be the richest in the village. Mr. Shih was a generous and good-hearted man. He financed a lot of public construction here. After he passed away his descendants moved to larger cities or to foreign countries. Only his wife, Grandmother Shih, stayed. She couldn't leave the memories. Now they hardly leave the house. Every morning they chant and pray to Buddha."

"How long since Shih Shan-pen passed away?"

"Oh, it's about thirty-three years. I was only twenty years old then. On the day of the funeral everyone in the village was involved. It was almost like a temple fair. The tomb was built on his land. It's the largest one in the village. I'll take you to see it if you like. We have to pass that place anyway to get to my grandfather's tomb."'

Mister Fan didn't ask me anything more. I kept my head low. Miss Fan watched me carefully. I had tears in my eyes hearing them talk about Shih Shan-pen and Grandmother Shih.

When we climbed the mountains to see Mr. Fan's grandfather's tomb I led the way. Mr. Fan said "Hey, it seems you're very familiar with this mountain road."

I studied Shih Shan-pen's tomb carefully. Then I visited Mr. Fan's grandfather's tomb. After that I made an excuse to leave and I went to the door of Grandmother Shih.

Coincidentally, when I arrived Grandmother Shih was opening the door. She wore a blue top and dark pants and she moved slowly. Her face was worn and wrinkled, but a flower pin adorned her hair. In her hands were her prayer beads. She was mumbling and chanting. I recognized her profile. I was so touched that I reached out to her. "How are you, Grandmother Shih?"

"Who are you?" She gave me a curious look.

"I am Lu Sheng-yen." It was difficult for me to answer her that way.

"I know your name is Pi-fang and your old servant's name is A-sang. You have three-sons and one daughter. One of them just passed away four months ago. Your husband, Shih Shan-pen, passed away thirty-three years ago."

"You! I don't know you! You come to investigate me?" She was annoyed.

"No, no," I said nervously, "I didn't come to investigate you; I just know your past," I immediately explained.

"Crazy people." She turned around mumbling and closed the door.

I heard her yell for her servant inside the house,"A-sang! A-sang! A-sang!"

I had lunch at Mr. Fan's house after thus, but I didn't have much appetite. Mr. Fan called a taxi to send me back to Tai-Chung. He had business there too so we left together. When the taxi passed Justice Bridge Mr. Fan said, "This bridge was donated by Shih Shan-pen himself."

We reached the land-god shrine and Mr Fan said, "This shrine was also built by Shih Shan-pen. People say he built it in memory of his father."

At the bridge Mr. Fan pointed to the stretch of blue granite and said, "The kids like to play in the water here. They sunbathe on the rock."

I was silent all the way, saying goodbye to my past in my heart.

I was wondering how much longer I would keep my physical body.

"Am I crazy?" I thought. "No. I am very clear. Now, I have a little bit of understanding."

I realized heavenly secrets cannot be revealed. All God's arrangements move in cycles. If everyone knew their past, the difference in age, the sequence of old and young, and the relationships and titles, even time would no longer exist.

What a mess the world would be in!

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